by Ian Wilmut, interviewed by Andrew Ross

About the author: Ian Wilmut is an embryologist and researcher at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland. He and his colleagues are credited with cloning a lamb named Dolly, the first creature cloned from the cells of a mature animal. Andrew Ross is managing editor of Salon, a monthly on-line magazine.

“Researchers Astounded . . . Fiction Becomes True and Dreaded Possibilities Are Raised.” So went the headlines in Sunday’s [February 23, 1997] New York Times about Dr. Ian Wilmut, the embryologist in Edinburgh who has made history by creating a lamb from the DNA of an adult sheep. The research, performed at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, was sponsored by a drug company, PPL Therapeutics.

Mixed Reactions

Dr. Wilmut says the primary purpose of the cloning is to advance the development of...